The Art Of Chillaxing..

Meditation and the art of “chillaxing”

If you struggle to deal with Monday morning’s or Tuesday and Wednesday morning’s even then perhaps you need to learn how to switch off a bit more. Our meditation and relaxation specialist Simon Paul Frost from www.mymeditation.co.uk is holding a meditation workshop at the studio in Highgate next Wednesday 25th April and in this article he explains why we need to learn to chillax...


Ask most people if they meditate… the answer would be NO…
Ask most people if they want to feel calm, relaxed, be free from tension, anxiety and be happy about life…the answer would be YES…

Why is it then that most people don’t meditate…but desire the mind set and feelings that meditation provides?

I believe it is the old associations: after all, what does the word meditation mean to you? Orange robed monks sitting in silence for hours on end – a chilled out hippie or even an anti religious practice that is more witch craft than prayer … the list could go on!

If we feel limited by restrictions in our lives then we can lose hope – if however, we can remain calm then we enter a place of better understanding and from this objective perspective we can create any desired changes.

How often have you been in a place of regretful hind sight? Wouldn’t it be great to be in a place of productive for sight and be able to focus on the things you do want rather than waste your energy on all the things you don’t?


Times have changed but our human needs haven’t – we all love to feel calm, we all love to relax and we all would love our lives to be happy and positive…so what are you waiting for?

If you learn to meditate (like a work-out for the mind; the more you do the quicker and faster you become) not only will you be able to understand what meditation is all about you will also be able to say to this modern world that you also know how to “chillax”!

To chill = to feel calm and anxiety free.

To relax = to be tension-free and happy.

To book your place at the workshop on Wednesday 25th April 2012 Contact Us at the studio.

For more information on Simon go to: www.simonpaulfrost.com
For meditations go to: www.mymeditation.co.uk

Is cheating acceptable in your life?

After a weekend of controversy in the Premier League it appears as though cheating in one form or another has become more apparent in the English game and more acceptable to the clubs that benefit from these actions.


Some blame the influx of foreign players for the greater incidence of diving and feigning injury, my opinion is that simply is not true and is illustrated by the fact that the three players involved in these high profile incidents were actually ALL English! (Mark Davies, Bolton, Darren Perch, Newcastle and Andy Carroll, Liverpool)

The sad fact is that the players themselves and the fans of their clubs care little about the rights and wrongs of these actions when decisions are made in their favour!

Outside of football there are currently three Pakistani and one English cricketer staring at their prison cell walls as they complete custodial sentences having been convicted over match fixing allegations as well as numerous scandals that involve cheating within horse racing.

In my opinion the cheating epidemic is not just rooted in sport but in society in general. The pressures of modern living demand that we all need instant success in whatever we do, but the temptation is often there for many to do the minimum required at work, cheat the system for financial gain or cheat on a partner due to their own insecurities.

In my industry clients are constantly looking for ways to cheat themselves thin and find the quick fix. My team and I find ourselves having a constant battle with clients explaining why the latest fad diet is not only dangerous to their health but also completely counter-productive to their fat loss goals.

We see the after effects of lypo suction that has actually emphasised the fact that the client has no glutes to show off after the fat has been removed and welcome clients back with open arms when they decide that the tough option we offer at the studio does actually reap benefits and try our hardest not to say “I told you so” when they explain the only result they achieved from their course of 15 minute vibration training sessions was motion sickness!



Any good trainer will tell you that the concept of fat loss is a very simple one: It’s pretty tough for the average person to follow, but it is VERY simple.

1. Move
2. Eat real food
3. Recover

That’s it!

1. A decent personal trainer will be able to design an appropriate fitness programme for your specific needs (this isn’t the generic programme that appears in the glossy magazines and usually involves exercises with water bottles!)

2. Some people become obsessed with reading food labels. Our advice is to eat anything without a food label! You don’t get food labels on good quality meats, fruit, veg, nuts, seeds.... Eat proper food and your body will thank you for it and give you the results you desire.

3. Remove the stress from your life, sleep more, stretch more, learn to breathe properly, learn to switch off, learn to meditate and keep a smile on your face.

I know it was a slightly devious way of drawing you in with some football chat at the start but it illustrates the point that we shouldn’t accept cheating in any form.
Don’t lose track of honest morals and good old fashioned hard work.

Show cheating the red card - sorry, couldn’t help it!

Time To Detox?

We are all exposed to thousands of toxins and chemicals on a daily basis at work, in the home, through the air we breathe, our food and water supply, and through the use of pharmaceutical drugs. In addition, we are eating more sugar and processed foods than ever before in human history and regularly abuse our bodies with various stimulants and sedatives.

For decades, scientists have been studying the pollutants in our air, water, food, and soil. U.S. industries manufacture over 6 trillion pounds of 9,000 different chemicals a year. They dump billions of pounds of industrial chemicals into our air and water year after year. So now scientists have started to examine pollution levels in humans and their findings are deeply disturbing.

The foods and drinks we like the best, unfortunately happen to be the ones that are the worst for us.


The Truth

The more of these you consume the more acidic your body will become.

Our bodies are extremely clever at surviving, and set up defense mechanisms against substances that could harm our vital organs. In this case it is FAT. Our bodies use Fat to defend its self against an acidic system. This can also explain one reason why exercise is sometimes quite ineffective.

The organ most under threat is the Liver. Research clearly proves that our bodies are not capable of eliminating all the different toxins and chemicals we inhale and ingest every day. They simply accumulate in our cells (especially fat cells), tissues, blood, organs (such as the colon, liver and brain) and remain stored for an indefinite length of time causing all kinds of health problems. (Here are pictures of what pollution build-up looks like in the liver, versus a healthily functioning liver).

However the production of acid is also a natural function within the body. All of the cells (billions of them) that make up the human body are slightly alkaline, and must maintain alkaline in order to function and remain healthy and alive. However when we move, their cellular activity creates acid and this acid is what gives the cell energy and function. As each alkaline cell performs its task of respiration, it secretes metabolic wastes, and these end products of cellular metabolism are acid in nature.



Other than the liver one of the main areas that is subject to serious health issues is the Intestines and the Colon.Look at this picture on the right, would you feel constipated, bloated and lethargic? Would your bowels be irritated by this build-up day in and day out causing what we today call IBS? Just think about what other problems toxic build-up like this can cause? Stomach pain and constipation? Fatigue, gas and bloating? Overgrowth of Candida? Headaches and indigestion? Weight gain and a large protruding belly?

It has been stated that over 90% of disease in America could be traced to unhealthy conditions in the bowel. “The poisons thus generated (in the bowel) pollute the bloodstream, causing every tissue, gland, and organ of the body to gradually deteriorate and be destroyed.

When do you need to Detox?

If this is the first time you've been exposed to this life-changing information, you've probably never considered this simple question: Are you clean inside? Of course you take care of the outside: You shower, brush your teeth and wash your hair on a regular basis, but do you clean yourself inside? In this modern, toxic world it's becoming a simple fact of life that our colon & Lymphatic System (the ‘sewer system' of the body), liver and other organs also require cleansing. Just like a car requires an oil change periodically.

‘You service and tune your car up every 6-12 months or every 5000 miles. Why? To ensure that you get the most from it and that it lasts longer…When was the last time you did this for yourself? And what is more important – you or your car?’
If you experience one or more of the following, then it's time to detoxify:

Frequent fatigue and low energy
Flatulence, gas & bloating
Excess weight
Impaired digestion
Irritability, mood swings
Bad breath & foul-smelling stools

Recurring headaches
Constipation
Protruding belly ("pooch")
Powerful food cravings
Skin problems
Metallic taste in mouth

For more information on The All About You Detox programme contact us at the studio.

Learning lessons from a 6 year old

So it’s the end of 2011! I hope it’s been a good year for you?...

I enjoy this time of year as I use it as an opportunity to reflect on the past years successes and failures and plan out how I’m going to make the next 12 months even more productive and successful.


On Christmas day my sister came round with her partner and little Henry who’s six and just a bundle of energy! After shooting at each other with guns, teaching him tricks from his magic set and playing for hours with game after game, it’s amazing to see how much he hated losing at anything!

It got me thinking that maybe we should try to be more like kids in this respect! Why do so many people lose the desire to succeed so easily?!



Kids have very little fear, they say what they think, they just want to have fun and they want to win!

Now that’s a pretty good outlook for anyone’s life in my eyes!

What happens to us as adults though?

When do we stop wanting to win?

Why do we accept we don’t want to get the best from our relationships, from our jobs and from our health?


Life doesn’t have to be this way. We CAN win at everything! We can have great relationships, a great career, great health and fantastic fitness levels. We just need to decide to do it and then make a plan to get there.

2012 is going to a very good year, I’ve decided this already! ;-) We’ll see the country come further out of recession and more opportunities for growth will be available for us.

As for our health and fitness, The Olympics is coming to town and we’ll be inspired by the performances of Mo Farah, Dai Greene, Ben Ainslee and Jessica Ennis to get out there and move a bit more!

If you want to win in 2012 then forget what you may have been told by others, lose the fear and the inhibitions, and decide that you want more…

Write down your top health, relationship, business and personal goals for next year, get out and make it happen and don’t give up until you win!

Contact us at the studio to find out how we can help you with your health and fitness goals.

http://aayou.co.uk/contact/

Stressed? What a joke!

Its Christmas time and no one really wants to read about what exercise they should be doing when all they want to do is crash out on the sofa and watch Deal or No Deal Christmas special! Or, what organic, locally farmed, grass fed produce they should be consuming on Christmas day – it’s that time of year when everything goes out of the window!


We WILL all over eat, we WILL have a few too many Bailey’s and we WILL do very little in the way of movement and it’s OK to do this, you need to listen to your body, give in and let it rest up from time to time.

PLUS – guilt is a wonderful thing for getting the studio’s busy in January!!

We all get caught up in the busy-ness of life, our work schedules become almost unmanageable, the stress of family and home life can get a bit too much, we realise how expensive this time of year can easily become and we forget about actually having some fun.

I was talking to one of my client’s this week about his work Christmas party and he told me he is hosting a laughter workshop!

Now, I’m open to a lot of weird and wonderful ideas, but this sounded a bit “out there” to me! Then the more I thought about it, the more I realised what an amazing idea it was. Laughter really is the best medicine...

GOOD FOR HEALTH
Laughter has been proven to relieve pain and enhance the immune system.
It reduces stress hormones like cortisol and dopamine and increase endorphins, the feel good chemicals.

GOOD FOR THE MIND
Laughter brings focus away from negative emotions like anger, guilt and stress and brings a positive outlook on things.

GOOD FOR A SIX PACK?!
A good belly laugh exercises the diaphragm, it contracts the abdominals and even provides a good cardio workout!

Simply put it provides a fantastic stress management tool, I’m sure we all enjoy sitting down to watch Only Fools and Horses on Christmas day to relieve the stress of the inevitable Christmas day family arguments?!!


It allows you to be in the moment, feel good, give you a different perspective on life and create a positive re-framing of your current situation.

The simple fact is that this year has been a tough time for a lot of us. However, with a New Year approaching I think we need to re-assess our priorities and make a conscious effort to laugh more and have fun in every aspect of our lives. This should be a priority of anyone who wants to live a more healthier life. So cheer up! It’s Christmas!!

Back To School

My lovely girlfriend was telling me about this lunatic she works with; he’s like the forrest gump of the I.T world, one day he just started running and he just hasn’t stopped! He’s found another slightly de-ranged fella to be his running buddy and the two “marathon men” are embarking on the slightly ridiculous challenge of completing 12 marathons in 12 months!


So I decided I would help out and make sure they were in a fit state to head off on their little adventure...

A little bleep test to determine their current fitness level and give me a bit more information to put a specific training programme together, and obviously a nice way to see them suffer and find out if they’ve got the staying power!...

Here’s Jamie’s take on the afternoon...

Sunday afternoon began with the feeling of returning to school as we prepared ourselves for the physical challenge that is the 20 metre bleep test.

Set in one of the gymnasiums at the old College for Education, now Northumbria Police HQ I really expected Mr Sugden, the PE teacher from Kes, to march in armed with whistle in hand and barking orders!

Fortunately we were joined by David Osgathorp, a high profile personal trainer from London, who was on hand to give us some much needed advice and feedback from the results from the test.

Langley and Jamie were joined by Judy and Zach for the opening stages of the test, but Zach soon found other interests (mostly climbing on police mannequins and peddling like the dickens on one of the many exercise bikes dotted around the room) and Judy later dropped out leaving the two marathon men to push themselves as far as their legs would take them.



The test had certainly picked up its pace by level 9 (or were we just slowing?) and the pair sprinted from point to point to hit the beats. Looking good at level 11 quickly turned to lagging behind as level 12 closed in. Langley reached shuttle 10 in level 11 before dropping and Jamie fell a shuttle later - showing how equal our relative fitness levels are as a pair.

We await the results with trepidation and David will be setting us a series of personal goals to help us in our build up to Anglesey.

If this wasn't enough we then set off on a 16 mile riverside run from Newburn back to Hexham. A tough run, but very rewarding on completion.
The training programme is on it’s way fella’s...
If you want to find out more about Langley and Jamie’s challenge head over to www.marathonmen.co.uk and help them in their goal to raise money for www.tinylives.org.uk

I’ve been inspired by their goal and if these dodgy old knees can take it then I may even join them for one of their marathons (let me know the flattest course fella’s ;-))

I’ll keep you all updated on their progress.

What's The Dukan Diet All About?

The Dukan diet has been getting a lot of press lately with A-list stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Giselle Bundchen and most recently Victoria Beckham reportedly following it to lose their post pregnancy pounds. But what is it? How does it work and is it safe?

French doctor Pierre Dukan is responsible for creating the diet over 10 years ago as a treatment protocol for his obese patients.



It is essentially a four-phase, high protein, high fibre, low calorie diet and has certain similarities to the Atkins diet in its extreme nature and in the results patients expect to see. Apparently dieters can lose as much as 1-2 pounds per day during the initial “Attack” phase.

How does it work?
Phase 1, the "Attack" phase, is quite simple: Eat all you want of lean protein, along with 1.5 tablespoons of oat bran and 1.5 litres of water daily. That’s it. Dieters can choose from 72 lean or low-fat meats (excluding pork and lamb), fish, poultry, eggs, soya and non-fat dairy.

This is followed by the "Cruise" phase, which allows unlimited amounts of 28 non-starchy vegetables every other day along with a core diet of unlimited lean/low-fat protein and two tablespoons of oat bran.

Carrots, peas, sweetcorn and potatoes are not on this list of vegetables but appear in the next phase.

Phase 3, "Consolidation," allows unlimited protein (including pork and lamb) and vegetables every day, along with one piece of low-sugar fruit, two slices of granary bread, and one portion of hard cheese. Dieters can also have 1-2 servings of starchy foods and 1-2 "celebration" meals

Phase 4, "Stabilisation," is the maintenance portion of the plan. Which includes rules such as one day a week, follow an all-protein diet as in Phase 1, eat three tablespoons of oat bran a day and walk for 20 minutes daily and never take elevators or escalators.

So is this the answer and should we all just follow this to achieve great results?

Well, in short, NO!

Any diet that encourages the body to deplete its glycogen stores will have a negative affect on the body; the book warns dieters they may suffer from bad breath, constipation, dry mouth and fatigue, all indications of ketosis which is a dangerous and potentially life-threatening state that stresses the liver.

As a health and fitness professional I feel it is my responsibility to bring about lasting change, to look at creating optimal health through safe and effective exercise and nutrition.

All the evidence out there points to the fact that diets simply don’t work. Anything that is so restrictive in its nature to cause such drastic weight loss can not be good for your body.


My first issue is the difference between weight loss and fat loss. You can head to the toilet and lose a few pounds of “weight”; you can reduce your water intake for a day or two and have the same effect. The truth is you need a long term healthy approach to diet and an effective exercise programme to bring about lasting change to your body composition and fat levels.

Burning 3,500 calories will result in a 1 pound of fat weight loss. Now that is going to be a seriously tough training session for a pretty small amount of progression. That’s why any fat loss based exercise programme MUST contain a supervised nutritional element.

You can’t out-train a bad diet!

Unfortunately for us Health and Fitness Professional the glossy magazines out there absolutely love to report on the eating and exercise habits of “celebrities”. If Posh Spice is doing it then it must be amazing!



Why are women so obsessed with what she does?!

The simple fact is that she has been in good shape her whole life. It’s up for debate as to whether she has been healthy for that time!

All of the women you see in magazines have never been seriously out of shape. 90% of the photo’s you see of them have been air brushed and most of them have probably had an eating disorder or two over the years and yet we still aspire to be like them?!!

The simple truth is the quick fix approach will produce quick fix results that produce rapid “weight” loss but rarely result in long-term success as the restrictive nature is extremely difficult for dieters to adhere to.

Our advice is to work with a professional who can not only provide exact exercise and nutritional advice tailored to your individual needs but also provide the accountability to enable you to stick to this programme.

For information on our training and nutritional programmes contact us at the studio: david@aayou.co.uk